NewsWrap
for the week ending August 22nd, 1998
(As broadcast on This Way Out program #543, distributed 08-24-98)
[Compiled & written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Brian Nunes, Jason Lin,
Graham Underhill, Martin Rice, Rex Wockner, Chris Ambidge,
Greg Gordon & Lucia Chappelle]
Anchored by Cindy Friedman and Leo Garcia
Sri Lanka's gay and lesbian group Companions On A Journey is lobbying for
repeal of the nation's sodomy law. The 130-year-old statute provides for
sentences of up to 12 years imprisonment. The nearly 500 members of the
three-year-old organization believe the law has played a role in their
experiences of homophobic assaults, job loss and evictions. Director Sherman
de Rose said, "We cannot have evidence or conduct studies until we create an
environment, atmosphere and space for people to come out and speak."
Despite having been arrested at the request of their parents, a lesbian
couple has celebrated what may be the first same-gender wedding in Nepal.
Several hundred people turned out to watch as Sita Malla and Rupa Shrestha
carried out a traditional ceremony. Police in their village in the
southwestern Nawalparasi District had had to release the women because they
had done nothing illegal.
But three bills against gay and lesbian and transsexual marriages have been
introduced in the Philippines Parliament. They were proposed by Senate
President Marcelo Fernan in what he says is an effort to "clarify a gray area
in the marriage law." Although the Philippines already defines marriage as a
contract between a man and a woman, Fernan was concerned that marriages
performed outside the country might be recognized there. His measure
targeting transsexuals would insert the word "biological" before "man" and
"woman" in the Family Code. Although Fernan denied having any personal
problem with gays and lesbians, the Filipino group PRO-Gay, the Progressive
Organization of Gays in the Philippines, denounced the bills. They said that
any threat to Filipino families is posed by the nation's economic crisis and
its politicians, not by same-gender marriages.
Canada must include its gay and lesbian civil servants' domestic partners in
the same health benefits category as married spouses, a Canadian Federal Court
judge ruled this week. The Canada Human Rights Tribunal ruled two years ago
that the national government must extend spousal benefits to same-gender
couples, but the government complied by creating a new category of "same-sex
partner relationship." Although the actual medical and dental benefits were
the same, unions have been contesting the category ever since it was
established, calling the process discriminatory and demanding a gender-neutral
definition of "spouse." Justice Andrew MacKay agreed, saying, "It is no more
appropriate for the employer in this case to have established a separate
definition for persons in same-sex relationships than it would have been for
the employer to create separate definitions for relationships based on their
race, colour or ethnicity." MacKay also affirmed that the Human Rights
Tribunal did have the power to require the federal government to list all its
employee benefits regulations which discriminate against gay and lesbian
couples and to submit proposals for their correction. In the Tribunal's
original 1996 ruling, it had demanded that list within 60 days.
The latest U.S. employer to extend health benefits to its gay and lesbian
workers' domestic partners is the "Washington Post" newspaper. The "Post"
found it convenient to make the change when it was changing health insurance
providers. Corporate spokesperson Virginia Rodriguez said, "The 'Post' has
always valued our diverse workforce. We just felt it was important that we
serve all of our employees."
In Australia, the highest court in the state of Queensland has rejected a
lesbian's discrimination complaint against a clinic which denied her
artificial insemination services. The complainant known as "JM" had
originally won a judgment from the state's Anti-Discrimination Tribunal,
including A$7,500 in damages from the QFG medical group in Brisbane. But when
the clinic appealed to a trial court, the judge decided that "JM" had not met
the established medical criteria for artificial insemination, because she had
not first engaged in 12 months of heterosexual activity. That judge found
insufficient evidence to establish discrimination, and now the higher court
has upheld his ruling. Meanwhile, "JM" actually had her baby after making
private arrangements for a sperm donor -- but she had wanted a clinic's
screening process to avoid HIV.
Venezuela's Supreme Court this week chastized the Department of Defense for
its treatment of soldiers with HIV. The court demanded "immediate and
unconditional" compliance with an order it had issued in January, which
required the military to meet the medical needs of its HIV-positive personnel.
Defense Minister Tito Rincon responded that he had already requested funds
from the Congress for that purpose. The court has ruled that HIV-positive
soldiers must continue to receive their salaries, although the military can
take them off active duty.
The highest court of the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. has ruled that an openly
partnered gay man may finish out his term as an ordained church elder. Dr.
Ray Whetstone was ordained as an elder by the Second Presbyterian Church of
Fort Lauderdale, Florida in January 1996. Although the denomination had
established a guideline in 1978 against ordaining "self-affirmed, practicing
homosexual persons" as ministers, it was only last year's General Assembly
that made the ban part of church law. That law denies ordination as
ministers, elders or deacons to anyone who engages in sex outside of
traditional marriage. This week by a vote of 4 - 2, the Presbyterian Church's
Permanent Judicial Commission found that Whetstone's ordination was
"irregular," and that he may not seek another term as an elder, but is
allowing him to finish out his current three-year term. The case against
Whetstone was brought by his fellow congregant retired Navy Lieutenant
Commander Ron Wier, who believes homosexual acts are sinful and opposed his
ordination from the first. Wier is already targeting another elder he
believes to be gay, and his attorney has suggested there may be three or four
in their church. Pastor Roger Verse has called it "a witch hunt."
Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church and Bishop of Edinburgh Richard
Holloway has decided to retain those titles in order to fight for equal
treatment for gays and lesbians within the Church of England. This week
Holloway cancelled plans to retire from his clerical duties so that he could
seek election to the new Scottish Parliament. He was deeply disturbed by the
recent proceedings at the international Lambeth Conference of Anglican
bishops, where homosexual acts were found to be "incompatible with Scripture."
Recognition of same-gender couples and ordination of sexually active gays and
lesbians were both rejected. Holloway described this as "... a return to a
type of theological conservatism that, I believe, has to be challenged if
Christianity is to appeal to the best values in contemporary society." After
his public criticism of the Conference, he received many letters asking him to
stay in the Church.
Also quitting politics is openly lesbian city councillor Savannah Considine
of Port Adelaide Enfield in the state of South Australia. Considine made what
she called the "agonizing" decision to resign her office because of a campaign
of homophobic harassment she says dates back to her first city council
meeting. She had previously filed two police complaints after a series of
offensive remarks made to her face and in e-mails and faxes, and she had come
to fear physical violence.
The man suspected in a series of a dozen murders of gay men in Virginia was
tried and found guilty of one of them this week. The jury recommended life
imprisonment for Elton Jackson in the 1996 murder of Andre Smith. Smith was
the last victim in the series of killings which began in 1987. All of the
victims were found alongside back roads, all but the first stripped of their
clothes, and Smith and at least 9 others were strangled. Jackson was
connected with at least five other victims, but no other charges have yet been
brought against him.
A gay and lesbian newspaper which helped to urge police action in those
murders has folded. The Virginia community monthly "Our Own" stopped the
presses this week after 22 years due to lack of funds.
Openly gay author Julian Green died in mid-August at the age of 97, after
what's believed to be the longest career of any major 20th century writer.
Born in Paris to U.S. parents, nearly all of Green's works were written in
French, and in 1971 he became the first foreigner ever to be elected to the
Academie Francaise. His works from 1926 through 1993 included 18 novels, five
plays, six essay collections, two histories, 14 volumes of journals, 5
memoirs, and even some screenplays. Green struggled most of his life between
his homosexual desires and his Catholic spiritual values, and finally opted
for celibacy ... at the age of 70.
And finally ... Jordanna Hertz and Mark Velasquez of New Haven, Connecticut,
are holding a marriage ceremony this weekend, but they won't be legally
married. Although the heterosexual couple are putting on a big event back in
their home state of Oregon, with both a minister and a rabbi officiating,
they're protesting the fact that legal marriage is not an option for their gay
and lesbian friends, including Velasquez' sister. And how's this for a non-
traditional family: walking down the aisle as their ringbearer will be Karibu
-- their pet dog.